Mallery Street Cafe, Saint Simons Island GA

This is Marie, contributing another small chapter about a place on St. Simons Island called Mallery Street Cafe. It’s brand new and has no history whatsoever; I don’t even recall having seen it the last time we came down to visit. It’s in the same location as a former CD and tape shop where as a teenager I used to spend what little of my allowance used to be left after the purchase of books and candy; in one of the shops that came in succession after that one, my sister bought altogether too much incense and smelly candles. Its current incarnation is much cuter than either, but not too much so.

My father and I went to this place primarily because we had suffered the shock of discovering that Dressner’s, our favored breakfast location, had closed. There was no announcement, no “sorry to lose you as customers,” no update to the web site…just the sign down from the wall, the window papered over, and “Coming Soon” written in very large letters on the paper. While I hope that there is a new and spiffier interior and sign for the same restaurant as the item coming soon, I rather doubt it. It is all rather inexplicable, although quite irrelevant to this entry.

There seems to be enough breakfast business in the area that this new place should survive even if the competition does reopen, as they seem quite pleasant. Mallery Street Cafe has a decent location, just at the edges of the Pier/Village area, not far enough to discourage strollers from dropping in but not in the part where parking is so awfully hard to find. That said, as with any shop in the area, it is recommended that visitors walk rather than drive there if possible. The restaurant has some tables out front with decorative potted plants scattered around to spruce up the otherwise rather bare area, and the wait staff were extremely attentive to the outdoor patrons. It’s quite nice to look at.

The menu is fairly basic, with the usual pancakes and breakfast steak and eggs/toast/bacon a la carte. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they also had a nice selection of teas from the local tea shop just down the block. Of course I had to order from that selection. They offered refills of hot water, too, which was nice–especially since the loosely-packed bag is big enough for two or three mugs of tea. I was quite happy with that order.

But here I am several paragraphs down, and haven’t even talked about the food. You’ll also note that there was no picture of it. That is because when it arrived I dug straight in and was several bites into the cute decorative flower made out of blueberries and strawberries on top of my pancakes before the idea of photography crossed my mind. My father, who was with me, had breakfast steak and (I think) home fries, and seemed quite satisfied with them. I would like to try some of the stuffed crepes that appear to be options, and definitely would like some more of the tea. All in all, it’s a pleasant little place and worth going to again.